Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (N64)
Developed by: Neversoft
Published by: Acclaim

I played the Playstation version of this game a while ago, and I was thorougly impressed. I’m not a skater, and I didn’t think that this game would be appealing to me. Besides, it certainly couldn’t be any better than Skate or Die, right? Well I was wrong. This game is loads of fun, and well worth your hard earned cash.

I had been lead to believe that the N64 version of this game was terrible, and suffered from poor controls. That’s not true at all.The controls are almost identical, using the 4 yellow buttons on the N64 controller in place of the X, circle, square and triangle buttons on the Playstation controller. The graphics are amazing, and the gameplay is just as easy. The learning curve is fairly small for this game, but once you’ve learned the basics there is still a lot of room for improvement. The game rewards creativity and experimentation by giving more points for combos and secret moves.

The camera in this game was programmed perfectly, following behind your skater at just the right distance, and reacting at the right speed. You very rarely get disoriented in the game, but you can’t help be blown away by the intense speed of the action that goes down.

There is so much to do in this game, and the multiplayer games are fun too, and this is why I say it is worth buying. Each of the skating areas contains so many different obstacles and hidden rooms that I don’t think you can ever grow tired of them. The game is really addictive too. You just keep saying to yourself “One more try and then I’ll go to bed” or something to that effect. At times I wished that the sessions were a little bit longer, or that you could increase the time length for the sessions, but the short 90 second sessions are one of the reasons for the addictiveness in the game.

The only thing missing in the N64 game is the blood, the skate videos, and some of the music. The soundtrack for this game is amazing, and any aggressive music fan will love it. This was yet another thing that endeared the game to me. How many games do you know that open up the title screen with the Dead Kennedys?? For the Nintendo version they had to shorten some of the songs, and leave some of the songs off the game completely. (The Vandals don’t appear in the Nintendo version for example.) Now I wonder whether this has to do with lyrical content for the songs, or whether it is because of space limitations. I imagine that both issues were a factor, as the Dead Kennedys, Primus and a few other songs appear without any singing at all in them.

Overall, this game is an amazing piece of work. Skaters are sure to love it, that is a given. But I’m willing to bet that most non-skaters will appreciate it too. — Sean

Lazy Jones (Commodore 64)
Developed By:David Whittaker

You gotta love the Commodore 64. I think it has my vote for the best “video game system” of all time, and the reason is because of games like this. It didn’t take a huge video game company to produce a game for the C64, in fact, one person could make a game if they had a bit of technical know-how and an interesting idea. Actually, even if you didn’t have an interesting idea you could make a game, and it might even turn out to be really fun. This was one of the cool things about the Commodore 64, it allowed people to experiment and to be creative, and it resulted in games like Lazy Jones.

Lazy Jones is a very simple game that doesn’t really have a point to it. It’s bizarre, it’s addictive, and I don’t really know where it came from, but it’s just fun!

You are this strange little guy with a big nose (I assume you play the role of Lazy Jones himself) and you walk around a hotel. Your goal (if you can call it one) is to avoid the strange people (and carts) roaming the halls and go into each room of the hotel. Inside each room is a different arcade game that you play for a short period of time. The arcade games are all really simple; some of them are ripoffs of real arcade games such as Space Invaders, while others are just plain bizarre, such as “The Turk” where you have to shoot a fork into turkeys as they come down a conveyor belt before they fall into a garbage can at the end, and you also have to avoid having your fork hit by a clock that is bouncing around the screen. There are also a few rooms in the hotel that don’t contain arcade games, instead they are a broom closet, a bathroom, and a bedroom. These rooms have no point to them. You walk into them, and then walk out again, except for the bedroom where you lie down and sleep for a minute and have a “Lazy Nightmare”. Weird stuff!!

Grab yourself a Commodore 64 emulator and check out this game immediately. I highly recommend it. You can have competitions with your friends to see who can get the highest scores on each of the games, and while you’re doing it you can laugh at how absolutely pointless and stupid this game is! — Sean

Pong: The Next Level (PC)
Developed by: Radical Entertainment
Published by: Electronic Arts

This is another game I had originally played on Playstation, but since I don’t own the Playstation, I went out and bought it for the PC.

When I first heard about this game it didn’t really seem very interesting to me at all. The whole “pong” name kind of discouraged me I guess. Pong is pong. That attitude was kind of hypocritical of me though, because I’ve always said that the simple, addictive games of old are the best, and that today’s game developers should be trying to keep their games more simple, rather than going overboard on graphics and video and other crap like that.

Pong: The Next Level proves the point that simple games kick ass. They took a simple idea and played with it a bit, coming up with loads of levels and interesting twists on the original pong game.This game is highly addictive, and a lot of fun to play against your friends. If you have any.

The PC version has the added option of playing against a friend over a network. If you have a fairly fast connection, this is surprisingly playable.

The only complaint I would have is that a lot of aspects of the game rely purely on chance. If you play enough times against the computer eventually you will get lucky with some of the power-ups or special moves and you will win. — Sean

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes (N64)
Developed by: 3DO

I really like the Army Men concept. It’s kind of like taking the Micro Machines idea and applying it to action games or strategy games. 3DO has put out a number of different games based on Army Men, and this game is basically a first person shooter.

There’s not really much to say about this game except that it was a good idea with poor implementation. The game is somewhat like Goldeneye or Mission Impossible, with different objectives on each level. There is also a multiplayer game. Unfortunately, it’s just not fun, because the play control sucks. It’s impossible to turn your player around quickly, because the camera lags behind, and you can’t see what’s in front of you. They decided to go with the Mission Impossible style POV, where you can see your player running in front of you. I have not seen many successful attempts at using this view, because it always seems to result in clumsy gameplay. Sarge’s Heroes proves this yet again.

The multiplayer levels seemed pretty boring, although some of the weapons were fun. I liked what I saw of the one player game, but it was just too frustrating to sit through.

Sarge’s Heroes has some neat touches that were thrown in, such as how the enemy soldiers melt into a puddle of plastic when you use the flamethrower on them, but perhaps 3DO should have put more work into the general game controls before adding in these extra features. — Sean

Atom And His Package
Monday March 27th @ some kid’s house in Buffalo

This is definitely one of the stranger shows I’ve been to. It was held at a house in Buffalo where some college kids live, and although it’s kind of cool and DIY, it’s really a pretty crappy “venue”, if you want to call it that. The show was in the basement, and the ceiling was like probably a little more than 6 feet high in most places. (Damnit, I’m Canadian and I don’t even know what that is using the metric system.. I’m so ashamed) No one except the kids in the front row could see anything. Not that there was much to see anyways.

I really like Atom’s music, I think it’s cool that he’s doing something different and he’s a pretty amusing character. But his live show definitely leaves something to be desired. First of all, for the most part all he does is press a button on his keyboard and sing over top of it. That’s not all that exciting. To make matters worse, he has to wait in between every song while the sequencer “executes”, meaning he has to come up with clever banter in between every song. The clever banter mostly consisted of inside jokes that I didn’t seem to be in on. Everyone else in the place thought Atom was hilarious, but I was just itching to hear more music. Then when he attempted a couple new covers and screwed them up and stopped in the middle of the song, that just added to the chaos.

When the set finally came to an end, it seemed like it had been really short, although Atom had been up there for well over an hour. With all the talking and waiting in between songs, he had only played maybe 10 songs in total. At least he played his cover of the Dead Milkmen, cause that kicked ass.

All in all, it was an interesting experience, but it will not go down in my books as one of the more rockin shows I have been to. — Sean

American Psycho
Directed by: Mary Harron
Written by: Bret Easton Ellis (novel), Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner (screenplay)
Starring: Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon

I’ll start by saying that I haven’t read the book, and I had no prior expectations upon sitting down to watch this film. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews, so I wasn’t really too sure what I was going to see. From the TV commercials I had seen it seemed to have a quirky sense of humour to it, but I also knew it was a movie about a serial killer, and the two didn’t seem to coincide. I didn’t know if I was going to see a horror movie, a comedy, a thriller.. or maybe a docu-drama or better yet a “romantic comedy”! God I love those.

As it turns out, the movie is a lot of things. It really isn’t important what category it fits into. I liked this movie. A lot. I liked it so much that the night after I saw it, I went and saw it again. And neither night was cheapie night! No kidding.

American Psycho deals with the double life of Patrick Bateman, who works as a Wall Street big shot, and also a serial killer in his spare time. We follow his decent into insanity, and see his failed attempts to confess his crimes to the people around him.

Surprisingly, American Psycho was really my kind of movie. Let me tell you why. First of all it had a lot of sex and violence in it. ‘Nuff said there.But besides the obvious reasons, this movie had just about everything in it.For starters, the humour in this movie was great. It was very sarcastic, very dark, and very amusing. In a lot of ways, in reminded me of Army of Darkness or something along those lines.The actors went totally over the top bringing out the exaggerated characters of the corporate world, who obsess over the most trivial things (such as business cards and dinner reservations). It was amusing not only because of how ridiculous it was, but also because I’m sure there is a lot of truth to it. It had many memorable scenes and an endless amount of great one-liners, which, to me, makes it the kind of movie you want to watch over and over again.

Secondly, this movie had style. It was slightly reminiscent of Fight Club, but I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. The camera work was amazing, with lots of great lighting and framing that helped bring us into the mind of the american psycho, by expounding upon the main character’s schizophrenia. Many of the scenes had a dreamy feel to them, which blurred the boundaries between illusion and reality.

The movie also uses music to great effect by juxtaposing hilarious music with the brutal murder scenes. This perhaps brings to mind such movies as Reservoir Dogs or A Clockwork Orange.However, the way in which they treated the murder scenes in this movie was perfect. They maintained the horrific and terrifying aspects of Bateman’s “alter ego”. They did not glorify it or make light of it, they only emphasized his bizarre and volatile nature.

Thirdly (and this is important to me), American Psycho never does what you expect it to. From the artsy opening credit sequence through to the vague ending, the movie refuses to deal out any cliches. I hate it when a movie is too predictable, I like to be caught off guard with twists and surprises. I’m pretty sure that the ending felt awkward to a lot of people because of the simple fact that nothing is resolved. I too felt a little bit short changed at the ending, but after putting it in perspective, I believe that the ending was effective and necessary, and actually gave the movie more resonance. If that makes any sense.

This brings me to the fourth reason why this movie kicked so much ass. It makes you think. It makes you think about the shallowness of society, about how things are not always what they seem, and about the schizophrenic tendencies of every day people.The open ended conclusion leaves you pondering the significance of all that you have seen, and makes you want to go back and watch it all over again.

The great thing about American Psycho is that I think everyone will get something different out of this movie. You need to have an open mind though. That goes especially for the people who have read the book first. It doesn’t even sound like the movie covers the same story as the book. Don’t go to this movie expecting an on-screen version of the book, because you won’t get it. Just go with an open mind and let this movie do its own thing. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. — Sean

Star wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
Written and Directed by: George Lucas
Starring: Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor

Okay well this movie is about to be released on video so I guess I will throw in my two cents before it is too late. Most people have already had their say about this movie. There have been plenty of mixed reviews on this one. All the movie critics and hardcore fans said it was terrible, and all the poseur Star Wars fans LOVED it. I’m somewhere in the middle of them (as usual).

I saw it on opening night, which was pretty fun. The exciting atmosphere made the movie really enjoyable, but on the other hand, the added hype raised my expectations for it too. So you know, it was good, but at the same time it was disappointing. I think that was a natural feeling. No matter what was up on that screen, it would have been a bit of a disappointment to most people. After I saw it a couple more times, I came to appreciate it for what it was: a children’s fairy tale story and a vehicle for some amazing special effects.

Lucas did a good job of capturing the feeling of the Star Wars world, although at times this movie definitely feels more cartoony than the first three movies did. I will concur that yes, Jar Jar Binks was kind of annoying . Basically you have to realize that a movie where a young kid is the hero is going to be partially a kid’s movie. Just accept it and stop whining about it people!

The story wasn’t anything special, but I mean, in a lot of ways we all knew what was going to happen. It’s tough to write prequels that are still going to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. The whole Queen Amidala decoy thing was kind of lame. It could have been a cool idea if they had done it right I think. The dialogue was painful at times too. The story was just there to give the special effects people an opportunity to do their thing.

There was a lot of talk about how there was too much computer animated stuff in the movie. Honestly, it was all fine except maybe for the Gungans. It was a little too obvious that they were animated characters to me. Their movements seemed too stiff and robotic to me, and also there were times that the actors didn’t seem to be looking right at them. That was unfortunate, because it reminds you that you’re watching a movie. If you’re going to be drawn into the story you have to be able to forget that you’re sitting in a movie theatre watching this on a screen. Either way, the special effects in this movie were awesome. My favourite part of the movie was definitely the light saber duel at the end. I was blown away.

In light of some of the movie’s shortcomings, it is amazing that it still feels like a Star Wars movie. But it does.The music from John Williams is solid once again, and also I think the actors really did a great job, especially Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor. It really is a fun movie, you just have to have realistic expectations and a bit of an open mind I guess. — Sean

Smoking Popes - Live
(Double Zero)

The Smoking Popes are one of those bands that have spent their whole career just under the mainstream radar, so to speak. They did cause a few small blips when they released their album Born To Quit on Capitol Records, with the song “Need You Around” receiving some moderate commercial radio airplay. After that, however, they once again vanished without a trace. Or so it seemed. The truth is, they have been together since 1990, releasing records on an indie label and steadily building up an underground following of fans throughout the years. Then they were signed to Capitol Records and released two albums before breaking up in 1998. Since then they have started up their own record label, using it to release a compilation of their old 7 inches and now a brand new live album.

The music of the Smoking Popes could be loosely described as a mixture between Jawbreaker and The Smiths. Their songs have a melancholy feel to them, while still packing a punk rock punch. Not only that, but there is an uncanny resemblance between the vocal stylings of Morrissey and Josh Caterer, lead singer for the Popes. As it turns out, Morrissey is actually a big fan of the band, having taken them on tour in the past.

Now normally under the circumstances I would be tempted to say that this such a live album is just a lame attempt by the band to keep making money off of their past works. However, I’m convinced that this live album really is something for the fans. It is a recording of a show they played at The Metro in Chicago from 1998. It contains 22 tracks, and over 70 minutes of music, which is pretty astounding.

Although some of the songs are a little bit bass heavy in the mixing, and the vocals are occasionally drowned out by the guitars, overall the sound quality is excellent. The crowd noise has been kept to a minimum except at a few key points (such as their sing along at the beginning of the song “Double Fisted Love”). There isn’t much talking in between songs, the Popes prefer to concentrate on the thing they love most, that being the music. They run through song after song, blending them seamlessly together. This album could have been one long track on the cd as far as I’m concerned because it all flows so well together.

For fans of the Smoking Popes, this album is well worth having. It has an excellent selection of songs, spanning from their first 7 inch through to their final LP Destination Failure. However, the Smoking Popes are a band that just about anyone could get into, and this album could potentially serve as a good introduction for those who are unfamiliar with their previous works (such as myself). That certainly isn’t something I would say for most live albums. — Sean

Crooked Fingers - s/t
(Warm/Sonic Unyon)

Crooked Fingers is the solo project of Archers Of Loaf front man Eric Bachmann. This is also the first release on the new Warm label run by ex-Man Or Astro-Man? Brian Causey who also appears on the album. This is what drew my attention to the album. Being a large Man Or Astro-Man? fan, I was curious to hear Brian Causey’s (known as Star Crunch to Astro-fans) next project. What I got was something very different, but still worth while.

The record contains ten compositions, all of which are made up of complex instrumentation and a wide array of sounds including violins, cello, and an electro chime played by Causey. Bachmann also makes use of sound loops to create an ambient atmosphere behind the clean guitar sound. The vocals on this album can at times be compared to Neil Diamond, which works well with the melancholy tone of the songs. The album is distributed in Canada by Sonic Unyon. Releases like this are a definite sign of the Hamilton indie labels growing success and good taste.

I wouldn’t say this album would make my top ten list of this year, mainly because it isn’t really a style of music which I am really into, but it does have an interesting enough sound to keep my attention and find a permanent place in my cd collection. — Jay

Various Artists - WWF Aggression
(Priority)

WWF Aggression is the latest album to come out of the World Wrestling Federation. The twist to this album is that it features the WWF Superstars’ theme songs redone by today’s popular rap artists including Snoop Dogg, ODB, Method Man, Ice-T, Run DMC and many more. If you’re a wrestling fan or a rap fan, you’ll love this album. It’s like a slam to the ring, only the slam is the music, and the ring is you listening to the music.

The first track features Run DMC performing the D-Generation X theme “The Kings”, and Run DMC prove that they are “the kings” of re-rapping wrestling themes! Old Dirty Bastard brings his off the wall, in your face stylings to the Mankind theme “Wreck”. Phat beats and bustin rhythms will make you get off the couch and pile drive yourself into musical heaven. The most disappointing track on the cd would have to be The Rock’s theme, “Know Your Role”, performed by Method Man. All I have to say is that Method Man definitely didn’t know HIS role when he took it upon himself to give The Rock’s catchy theme a face lift rivaling that of Joan Rivers! Looks like Method Man could have used Fred Dirst’s help on this one! Now for the best part of the album, The Godfather’s theme, “Pimpin’ Aint Easy”, as performed by Ice muthaf***in’ T. Hearing Ice say “bitch” is enough for me to disqualify myself from the match by hitting the referee with the knockout bell so that I can rock out to the magical theme that made pimpin’ acceptable once again!

Overall, WWF Aggression will not leave my cd player until the day Vince McMahon admits that there’s no difference between hoes and prostitutes!! — Jay